"the whole Universe is the Garment of God."
This brings us back to the song of the _Erdgeist_ in Goethe's _Faust_:--

"In Being's floods, in Action's storm,
I walk and work, above, beneath,
Work and weave in endless motion!
Birth and Death,
An infinite ocean;
A seizing and giving
The fire of Living:
'Tis thus at the roaring Loom of Time I ply,
And weave for God the Garment thou seest Him by."

This is, of course, no novelty invented by Goethe. We find it in Marius
the Epicurean, and he found it in ancient wells of Greek philosophy.
Carlyle's use of it has often been taken for Pantheism. In so mystic a
region it is impossible to expect precise theological definition, and
yet it is right to remember that Carlyle does not identify the garment
with its Wearer. The whole argument of the book is to distinguish
appearance from reality in every instance, and this is no exception.
"What is Nature? Ha! why do I not name thee God? Art thou not the
'living garment of God'? O Heavens, is it in very deed He, then, that
ever speaks through thee? that lives and loves in thee, that lives and
loves in me?... The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a charnel-house
with spectres: but godlike and my Father's." "This fair Universe, were
it in the meanest province thereof, is in very deed the star-domed City
of God; through every star, through every grass-blade, and most
through every Living Soul, the glory of a present God still beams. But
Nature, which is the Time-vesture of God, and reveals Him to the wise,
hides Him from the foolish."

Such is some very broken sketch of this great book. It will at least
serve to recall to the memory of some readers thoughts and words which
long ago stirred their blood in youth. No volume could so fitly be
chosen as a background against which to view the modern surge of the
age-long battle. But the charm of _Sartor Resartus_ is, after all,
personal. We go back to the life-story of Teufelsdroeckh, out of which
such varied and such lofty teachings sprang, and we read it over and
over again because we find in it so much that is our own story too.

LECTURE VIII

PAGAN REACTIONS

In the last lecture we began the study of the modern aspects of our
subject with Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_. Now, in a rapid sketch, we
shall look at some of the writings which followed that great book; and,
with it as background, we shall